Much ado about rules

There are some basic truths in life.  Rail against them if they must, people need to understand that some aspects of life are as inevitable as gravity.

One of those things is rules or laws.  People don't always like laws.  It's not hard to understand why.  Rules inhibit us, especially when we don't want to be inhibited.

However, at their most basic purpose, rules serve an important role in helping groups of two or more people to avoid unnecessary endangerment and help maintain order.

Now, rules come in two flavors, authority enforcement or self enforcement.  Self enforcement is when two or more people voluntarily agree to rules to conduct actions and relationships.

Essentially, self enforcement is a contract in which everyone agrees to follow the agreed upon conditions.

Now, in a society, perhaps as few as two people or as many as two billion, we like to think people can be held to their agreements.  However, we then run into another truth of life, people are not perfect.  People can be corrupted, lazy, selfish, in denial, envious, etc...   These human conditions lead people to lying, cheating, sneaking and outright rebellion.  It happens.  It always has happened, it always will happen.

Not everyone, not all the time, but it could be anyone at any time.

What then when one or more people party to an agreement, subject to conditions, decides they do not want to abide by those rules anymore or at all?

If it happens enough or has negative enough ramifications to other parties, all to often an authority is established.  A person or body of people who are tasked with or assume the role of law enforcement.

These folks have power.  Whether given or taken.  Whether tacit or implied.  They have power in their authority to reconcile broken rules.

Let's toss out some platitudes.  With great power comes great responsibility.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Those in power never willingly give up that power.

What has human history taught us again and again about authorities?   It teaches us that in virtually every human society ever documented bodies of authority grow and bloat until society itself implodes and eliminates that authority.  Then they do it all again.

This is said to be the very definition of "stupid" to do the same thing over and over, expecting different results every time.  If not stupid, certainly naive.

Yet, it is one of those human conditions to seek out something, someone, to make things "fair".  Even when we should know how it's going to end up, we simply can't help ourselves.  It's built into us.

As humans, we seek safety and order.  We know that if everyone follows the rules, like drivers taking turns at a stop sign, everything can get done with the least amount of damage and in the best (relatively) amount of time.

That's what it all boils down to.  Let's do things so as not to unnecessarily endanger others or ourselves and do it in a way that is considered fair.

Two teenage guys, best friends since grade school.  They make a rule, an agreement with each other.  Don't let a girl come between us.  Purely voluntary, entirely self enforced.  Yet a rule all the same.

Essentially, this is the same thing as person one telling person two that they will do a certain service for them if person two gives person one something they find valuable in trade or compensation.  The basic contract.  It can cover exact details of the service provided, the exact price, the time frame, the consequences if things aren't performed as agreed or compensated as agreed.  It's still a contract.

It's not a libertarian ideal to have no rules.  No safety or no order.  Libertarians just seek self enforcement any and every time it's possible.  They wish to avoid authority enforcement if at all possible to prevent the inevitable power struggles that come with it.

If there is a need to bring someone else in, we want to be the ones who make that happen voluntarily.  This is why libertarian minded folks prefer arbitration over government courts.  We determine the authority figure specifically.  It is there to meet a limited and specific need then that authority is removed from the scenario.

We would rather hire a contractor to enforce basic conduct rules like traffic laws and crime prevention and intervention.    A contractor because then they too are bound by voluntary agreement to specific conditions and beyond that, their authority, on behalf of the other parties to the agreement, is null and void.

Can contractors be bribed or corrupted?  Can they abuse their position?  Only if they are human.  If they are human then they can be subject to the same emotions, desires, impulses, irregularities, defects and deficiencies and impairments that every other human is subject to.

This is why libertarian minded people are often optimistic yet cautious.  Hoping and working for the best but preparing for the worst.

We believe in concepts such as faith in our fellow people, but we keep a weather eye on them anyway.  We believe in trust and promises made but we don't take them for granted.  Trust must be earned.  Promises are observed tentatively.

We believe in rules because we know that rules are necessary if not inevitable to successfully living with each other.  But just because we know there must be rules doesn't mean we have to just shed the responsibility and expectations of self enforcement.  Self discipline, self esteem.

By holding ourselves to a higher standard, we expect the same of others.  But just because we have our heads in the clouds doesn't mean we can't watch our steps at the same time.